Filmmaker Statement

When Bonny Breuer proclaimed that this should play at her funeral, I asked if we could try a film festival first. In 2018, I was a senior at film school in St. Louis. Bonny Breuer was also a senior, but of the older variety. After a storied career as a caterer and car saleswoman — to name just a couple of her stops along the way — she decided that acting would be her next chapter. My producer sent out a nationwide casting call for the title role in my thesis film, DRIVING LOUISE. It's an intergenerational dramedy about breaking through the boxes in which society places us — and would be filmed on a cross-country roadtrip. In her casting submission, Bonny proclaimed, "I am Louise." That was the moment our paths crossed. I AM LOUISE, the short documentary we filmed years later, culminates in the moment Bonny's story meets mine. But the heart of film lies in her boundary-defying approach to growing older — and how she found herself on the silver screen in her golden years.